We made it to Eagle Point!

Nancy, Lisa, Dana & Gale ready to roll!

We arrived in the small town of Powers,Oregon on Sunday afternoon, August 1.  We were able to relax and get organized for our trip.

Monday morning we were driven to Bullards State Park in Bandon, Oregon where we went to touch the Pacific Ocean and begin our journey.  This is the last time we will see the ocean until we reach Yorktown, VA and are able to touch the Atlantic.  Our first day's ride was an easy one of 32 miles along North Bank Rd. then Hwy. 42 through Coquille to Myrtle Point, OR where we were picked up for the drive back to Powers (the road into Powers is VERY narrow and curvy - barely safe for cars, and NOT safe for bikes).  We had a remarkably good meal that evening at the Northwoods Cafe.

It was good that Monday's ride was easy because Tuesday's ride was not!  We ascended a total of 6714 ft.!  And descended 5237 ft.!  Amazingly, the toughest part of the day was the descent from 4000 ft..  We had to watch our rims to keep them from overheating as we were braking so much.  We all took the descent in our own way; I ended up walking a lot of it as the constant braking got to be too hard on my hands.  This was an extremely steep grade on a very narrow curvy BLM road.  The ascents were long and difficult, but nothing like that one long descent!  Lisa compared the ride to Bear Mountain which is actually fairly close to where we were riding.  I was, as will be the case the entire trip, the slowpoke of the group.  Dana and Gale were ahead of Lisa and me for most of the day.  Because they weren't sure where we were, Dana & Gale called for Steve to come look for us when they got cell phone service at the top of the mountain.  Lisa and I were just fine.  Steve finally found us two hours later (these mountain roads are not exactly well marked!); we were about 15 miles from our RV park north of Glendale.  Steve found Lisa first (she was just a couple of minutes ahead of me as it turned out) and she was glad for the ride (at that point she had ridden 56 very hard miles and initially had only planned on riding 40 miles).  They found me a couple of minutes later in great spirits, rejuvinated and really enjoying a mild descent.  I fought taking the ride & finally gave in only if they would let me ride to the bottom of the hill and then pick me up.  As it turned out when I saw what lay ahead for the next 15 miles I was glad I took the ride.  It was a really hot incline and we were close to being out of water.  Gale and Dana rode into Glendale and said we were lucky to have had the ride.  From everything we've read about the rest of the trip this may have been one of our toughest days (I hope!).  For the day we Lisa and I totaled 56 miles and Dana and Gale probably totaled about 71 miles.

Will post a picture and write about the ride to Eagle Point (another really tough day for me - temps. got to around 100!) tomorrow.